How to select Performance Testing Tool?

In this article, we will see how to select performance testing tool to validate the non-functional requirements of the application. There are many factors plays a critical role in any tool selection. From non-functional testing perspective, selection of tool is technically oriented. There are two types of tools available: Open Source and Commercial.

Following are the important factors must be considered before selecting performance testing tool, irrespective of open source or commercial tools:

Budget

Types of license

Vendor support and online forums

Protocol support

Scripting languages

Protocol analyser

Record and Playback options

Data Parameterization

Checkpoints

Transactions

Actions

Iterations

Built-in functions

Custom Functions for reusability

Compare scripts utility

Bandwidth simulation

Browser support / compatibility

Log Levels

Real time Workload Model

Scheduling

IP Proofing

Intuitive Graphs and Charts for identifying bottleneck

Different formats of Result Generation like *.html, *.csv, *.xls, *.xlsx, *.pdf etc.

Diagnostics

Resource Monitoring

Batch execution

Steps to select performance testing tool

Following are the steps involved in performance testing tool procurement.

Assume you analyzed the requirements and the budget approved from your higher management. Register at vendor’s website, download the latest version of the tool and get a trial license key. Usually trial license comes with full features for 10-14 days. Install it and start trying to script few critical scenarios.

Perform a warm up load test and generate the results and analyze it. Explore all the features and try to implement in the script. Go online and search for the vendor support websites and other forums. The above mentioned activities will increase your confidence level of the tool.